


Barroom Conversations

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [77]
Category: Farscape, Murder in Suburbia (TV)
Genre: Bars and Pubs, Best Friends, Caring John, Ditched By Friends, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Drinking to Cope, Excessive Drinking, Friendship, Gen, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, John is a Good Friend, Lonely Kate, Male-Female Friendship, Mentioned Emily Prentiss, Mentioned Georgina Kincaid/Sherlock Holmes, Poor Kate, Roleplay Logs, Sad John, Sad Kate, Workplace Party, pov Kate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 11:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7100656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Ash invites Crichton to come to an NOPD sanctioned get together at a country western bar with her where they both get ditched by Prentiss, the two have a conversation at the balcony bar that shows just how sad and lonely Ash really is in New Orleans. Fortunately, Crichton has a solution, at least for the evening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Barroom Conversations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So **sideofrawr** sent me a link to [this post](http://textsfromthewaverider.tumblr.com/post/145424533850/615-was-the-guy-in-the-cowboy-hat-kinda-hot-or) on Tumblr IM last night and said it might be hilarious if Ash said a British version of said text to Crichton and I totally agreed. I think she had wanted amusing but Ash wouldn't cooperate so she got this instead. I hope it's okay? But yay, new fandom in the series!

Ash looked at her beer with disdain. She’d been strongly encouraged to socialize more with her fellow officers, and so when Emily had persuaded her to go to a party that was being thrown at Bourbon Cowboy on Bourbon Street by some of their coworkers she had acquiesced, so long as she got to bring someone to help her keep her sanity. She liked Emily, she did, but she knew her partner was a bit of a party girl and when alcohol was involved Emily was going to go off and flit around like a social butterfly. So she’d asked Crichton to come with her, saying the drinks were going to be covered up to $75 a person, which she doubted they’d even touch, and he was game.

Oh, she was glad she’d invited him.

It wasn’t that it was a _bad_ place. She just wasn’t fond of the country music, though the rock music wasn’t so bad. The mechanical bull didn’t interest her, though she’d seen Emily on it a few times, and most of the people from work were too busy getting pissed and chatting each other up to pay her much mind. She and Crichton had been sitting up on the second-floor balcony bar, sipping their pints of Abita Andygator. The two of them had found this was a brand they favoured at the many bars they ended up going to. And the wonderful thing about this particular brew was that it had a higher alcohol content than most of the other ones that Abita put out so they could get pissed a lot faster. They’d had some other flavors downstairs but decided fuck it when they went upstairs to get some air on the balcony and got something harder. Now they were on their second pints and, to be honest, this was a better way to spend the evening than getting to know her co-workers who couldn’t be bothered to approach her.

“Was the guy in the cowboy hat kinda hot or have I just not shagged in a really long time?” she asked as she set down her pint glass as Crichton was about to take a sip.

He snorted, almost choking on his beer, before shaking his head. “Not sure I want to know how long it’s been since you got laid, Kate,” he said.

“I’ll have you know I used to be quite attractive, thank you,” she said, giving him a mild glare. “I actually snogged my DCI just moments before I ended up here. I mean, to everyone else it’s been years, but for me, it’s only been a bit.” She picked up her glass and had some more of her pint. “And I dated. Didn’t have the best of luck with blokes, but I _did_ date. It wasn’t like I was a bloody nun.”

“I had my eye on one person, pretty much,” he said with a shrug, looking at his glass. “Didn’t really notice anyone else once I fell for Aeryn. I mean, there were other women before her, and I made out with a few other women a few other times, but when I met her...she was kind of it.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Do you still miss Aeryn?” Ash asked quietly.

He nodded. “Not as much as when she first got taken back. I mean, I got some time with her, so there was that. And...maybe she’ll come back, like Jim’s daughter did.” He had some more of his pint. “But...I don’t know. It’s good to have hope, but it can be dangerous to cling to it.”

She nodded. “I know. Sometimes you just have to make the best with what you’re dealt with, as shite as it might be.”

He looked over at her and lowered his pint glass. “Are you all right, Kate?”

“I’m just kind of realizing how alone I am, that’s all. I mean, Georgina has whatever it is she has with Sherlock, Emily’s a social butterfly who has more of a bloody social life than I’ll ever have, and...” She sighed. “I don’t know. I feel more pathetic here than I ever did back home in Middleford. I should be taking this opportunity to live a life. Kick up my heels and shag a man every chance I get. Have a new lover every week. Tart it up. And yet I’m still the same boring, dull Kate Ashurst, except here I’m actually even more despised by the people I work with.”

Crichton tilted his head. “I thought you were happy.”

“I’m happy when I’m working a case. But being a copper in 2005 England is different than being a copper in the States in 2016. I don’t like the differences.” She picked up her pint and looked at it dejectedly. “I’m wondering if I made the right choice in trying to be a detective.”

“You’re brilliant, Kate,” Crichton said emphatically. “You really are one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. With that wish you made for everyone, you could go do something else and be just as brilliant at it.”

“Perhaps,” she said, pursing her lips. “I’m still alone, though. I mean, most men I know think I’m some sort of British bitch who wants to upstage them at their job and steal all their bloody promotions.”

“You’re not a bitch,” he said. “Opinionated, yeah, but that’s not a bad thing. And if they don’t like it...forget them. They don’t deserve a woman like you. You deserve someone who treats you with love and respect. Don’t compare yourself to everyone else. I mean, I’m alone too. And besides, you're gorgeous. Someone's going to take notice eventually. And if they treat you like crap I'll beat them up before you can shoot them.”

“I really shouldn’t be complaining about it,” she said, feeling bad. She leaned over and kissed his cheek softly. “You’re a good friend, John. You deserve a better friend than me. All I ever do is bitch and moan and you put up with it and you deserve better.”

“Hey, I like having you as a friend,” he said. “You have good taste in beer and you’re funny and you’re nice. Don’t sell yourself short.” He gave her a wide grin. “I think you’ve given these guys enough of your time. Let’s grab a cab back to the complex and pick up a six pack of these at the corner market and go back to my place and watch some crappy TV, okay? Scribbs misses you. You haven’t come around to play with her much lately.”

“I think that sounds like a good plan,” Ash said with a nod. “Maybe I can spoil her with some treats? She _is_ the only canine I actually like, after all.”

“If you get my puppy addicted to treats I’m sending her over to you and Georgina when she misbehaves,” he said with a laugh. “But...maybe just this once.”

“Deal,” Ash said with a grin before picking up her pint again and taking a sip. For the first time this evening she felt like smiling, felt happy. Crichton always managed to do that to her, somehow. She was so damn lucky to have him as a friend, she realized. Luckier than she had any right to be.


End file.
